Conceptual obstacles to the existence of an innate sense of number in the brain
Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 28, 2025

Multimedia Battery for Assessment of Cognitive and Basic Skills in Mathematics BM-PROMA
Published on: August 28, 2021
1Department of Philosophy, Federal University of Maranhão, Av. dos Portugueses, 1966, São Luís, Brazil.
Abstract:
I contend that the paper by Lorenzi et al. (2025) fails to establish the existence of an innate sense of number in the brain, as it conflates the terms "number" and "numerosity." While "numerosity" refers to the magnitude, "number" refers to the scale used by numerate humans to measure this magnitude. Since they do not provide evidence that the numerical scale is innately present in the brain, the behavioral and neural findings they present, at best, support the existence of a cerebral mechanism sensitive to numerosities.
Related Concept Videos
The Nativist Approach
Natural and Artificial Concepts
Somatosensation
Parallel Processing
Reason and Intuition
Piaget's Stage 2 of Cognitive Development

